Guinea or Nigeria - which flavor?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
E

emaughan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 5, 2006
38
9
8
61
Colorado Springs
Hello all,

I've been lurking here for a month or so and I finally decided to come out of the closet and enter "The Club". The folks over in the pike forum were very helpfull and I am now the proud own of two XinguI pikes. I now am looking to get some polypterus endlicheri endlicheri and a delhezi. My question is about regional variations. Toyin has both Guinea and Nigeria endlicheris - what is the difference?

Just for FYI, I have a 420 gallon that currently has a "relatively" peacefull community of 5 Parachromis Loesellei, 2 XinguI, a large leapard Ctenopoma, and a red tail shark. I don't foresee any issues except for the redtail - even though he is big and fiesty - he will probably stay at a max of five inches (i.e. possible future lunch for the pikes or the polys). Ph is ~7.6 temp 78 F. Filtration is great with a turnover rate of ~4.5 times per hour. Any potential problems? Here is a pic of my setup - I plan on adding more cover in the future.

Hungry Loesellei and ugly algae (trying to get it under control)


Sump


Some of the critters in my tank


Thank you for any advise you can give me.
 
Nigerians are the 'common' pattern of laps, with pale bellies and dorsal stripes.

Guinea laps have a stripe pattern that tends to extend to the base of their body, with less visible belly color. The pattern is also slightly different/more complex.

HTH :)
 
Thanks for the info! Any links to where I can find reliable "true blue" pics of each? I was hoping Africaman (aka Toyin) would post some pics - especially since I'll likely be doing some business with him.
 
yeah dude, search the MFK forums and look for threads by JESToner and Infblue, they both have posted plenty of pics of the real deal. :)
 
like cohazard, my brain kinda automatically thought lapradei when i read the title. But i guess you wanted to know about endlicheri endlicheri :)

while the difference between guinea and nigeria lapradei are very distinct, like what cohazard had mentioned, the difference between guinea and nigeria endlicheri are much more subtle. Both have good contrast between the patterns and base color of the fish. guinea endlicheri generally has a flatter head than other regional variants, and in some individuals it can be very flat.

they also seem to give off a different feel when looking at it, one could say that the nigerian endlicheri has a 'leaner' profile, whereas guinea endlicheri is 'wider' or 'thicker'. But its hard to really describe this in words.

this is basically all i could think of. and as you can see, it's not day and night differences or anything.

edit: the tank will work. some of those fish will not in the long run. you can expect fast growth for small one until it reaches 12". after that, growth will slow a little compared to a juvy, but still decent growth until 14"-16". after this, growth will usually slow down further as it inches to 18" or so ,and finally the max size in captivity is roughly anywhere between 20"-24" plus/minus an inch or so, depending on usual factors (food, tank size, genes etc.) in your 420, with a little luck from good genes and good appetite, i would expect yours to reach at least 20" after some time.
 
Which fish Infblue? I know the redtail may have its days numbered even if I do not get any polys (my pikes may get "curious" when they get bigger). My Leopard C. is almost 6" and does not look like he would ever be an easy snack - but I do not know endlicheri.
 
oops my bad heh yeah I did a bad habit of skimming posts.
 
the red tail shark for sure. the leopard ctenopoma will be fine for quite a long while. but when the endlicheri gets big, it may go after it (whether or not it could swallow it is another matter), or it won't ever bother. depends on the fish.

i guess i was just being a bit cautious...anyway its not a concern any time soon. But the red tail shark will look like a big feeder in the not so distant future.
 
dunno about differences.
but the redtail'd be food soon.
i'd watch the endli once it hits 10 inches.
mine tried to eat an ery ery and a CL half its own size.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom